Wednesday, October 10, 2012

While Le squelette joyeux (The Merry Skeleton) is more lighthearted fun with little-to-no scares [to us modern viewers], with it the Lumiere brothers lay the groundwork for using special effects to create monster movie magic, which has advanced a tad in the 100+ years since.

In fact, only 3 years later, Frederick Armitage successfully transported the skeleton away from the static black background and onto a pirate ship at sea for Davey Jones' Locker. The next thing you know, Davy Jones is raising hell in a Disney movie setting sail towards $1 billion dollars, literally. Thanks, Lumiere brothers!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Georges Melies -- our defending champion -- wins spot #2 in the series as well, this time for Le Cauchemar (aka A Nightmare).

It's not exactly Wes Craven material as the presentation is more humorous than horrific (though Freddy can be a pretty funny dude at times). However, scary movies are so deeply rooted within nightmares that this work by the cinemagician cannot be ignored. It also happens to be highly entertaining and contains excellent stop-motion substitution tricks especially innovative for the time.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Considered the first horror movie -- and arguably the first vampire movie -- Le manoir du diable (aka The Devil's Castle) is an 1896 Georges Melies film that runs for over 3 minutes, an astonishing length for the time.

The film has been known by a variety of alternate names -- The Devil's Manor, The Manor of the Devil, The House of the Devil, and The Haunted Castle -- the latter is actuallya different movie by Méliès, made 1 year later on the same set and with many of the same costumes. It is also notable for containing some of the earliest hand-tinting of images.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Way back on the first day of Summer, I began a "Slapstick Series" to explore the earliest days of that comedic genre within film. Along the way, I took a break to focus on THIS -- which still takes up much of my time and attention (please help!) -- and didn't quite make it all the way to my intended grand finale double-feature.

But now it's October and my favorite time of year. The days shorten, the leaves are dying and falling to the ground where they'll decompose. Soon it'll be Halloween. And thus the perfect time to explore Horror movies in their infancy, which I plan to do in a "Silent Screams" series starting tomorrow.

As for the 2012 Summer Slapstick Series -- R.I.P., you were loved. Below are each of its entries, listed alongside the silent film spotlighted within: